These days several properties are making it easier and more affordable for guests to leave their favorite vacation destinations with souvenirs that will last longer than a plastic dashboard hula dancer. The select hotels are offering guests a chance to make their own souvenirs via classes, workshops, and other creative hands-on programs.

Some of the most popular include:

The Viceroy Anguilla: Offers an on-site art class dubbed “Island Painting with a Twist” where professional artists show guests how to create handmade mementos to remind them of their trip to paradise.

InterContinental Montreal: Guests are given hands-on cocktail-making lessons at the hotel’s bar. After sampling different varieties of drinks they get to take home recipes and a bartender apron signed by the bar staff.

Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills: Hotel patrons can enroll in a pasta cooking class led by the hotel’s Italian chef. In addition to sampling goodies in the kitchen, each person gets to make, roll and cut pasta to take home as a souvenir.

Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte: The upscale hotel offers dessert-making classes in its Cocoa Lab kitchen. Guests make a variety of sweet treats, from ice cream and cake to brownies and eclairs, to take home, or to eat right away if they so choose.

Bacara Resort & Spa–Santa Barbara: Hobby shutterbugs can take home a slew of memories during a new weekly class called BacaraGram. The workshop includes a walking tour of the 78-acre resort with a professional photographer who teaches guests how to use the latest photo editing and sharing apps to capture the ultimate vacation photos.

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About Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin.
Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. She spent the next ten years as a television anchor and reporter at various stations throughout the country (from the CBS affiliate in Honolulu to the NBC affiliate in Green Bay). She has won numerous honors including an Emmy Award and multiple Edward R. Murrow awards honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast journalism. In addition, she has received awards from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for her reports on air travel and the Wisconsin Education Association Council for her stories on education. Michele has since left television to concentrate on being a mom and freelance writer.